Here’s what Microsoft told its employees about new H-1B visa fee

On September 19, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa holders seeking to enter the U.S. The restriction takes effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on September 21, 2025, and applies to new petitions filed after that date.

As expected, the new policy has created uncertainty for foreign workers and employers, especially in the tech industry. Companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and JPMorgan have urged their H-1B employees to return to the U.S. before the deadline to avoid complications.

Microsoft has responded by advising its H-1B employees to remain in the U.S. to avoid being denied reentry. The company has also provided a form for employees currently outside the U.S. to report their situation. Here’s the full memo sent out by Microsoft to its emplyoees ho;ding H-1B visa (via Business Insider):

IMPORTANT ADVISORY: New travel restriction for H-1B visa holders

(Updated at 6:04 pm pacific with the intake form for those outside of the U.S.)

Hi all–We have now reviewed the actual text of today’s Presidential Proclamation on H-1B visas, which you can find here: Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers — The White House.

Here’s what you need to know:

First, the proclamation is structured as a travel restriction. Beginning at 12:01 am eastern time on September 21, 2025 (so, 9:01 pm Pacific time tomorrow), individuals will not be able to enter/return to the U.S. in H-1B status unless their petition has an additional $100,000 payment associated with it.

What you need to do:

If you are in H-1B status and are in the U.S., you should remain in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. We know this may interrupt your travel plans. But the critical thing is to stay in the U.S. in order to avoid being denied reentry.

While the proclamation doesn’t reference H-4 dependents, we also recommend that H-4s remain in the U.S.

If you are in H-1B or H-4 status and are currently outside the U.S., we strongly recommend that you do what you can to return to the U.S. tomorrow before the deadline. The Proclamation was released within the last 30 minutes, so we realize that there isn’t much time to make sudden travel arrangements. But again, we strongly encourage you to do your best to return. If you are not able to return, please use this form to let us know about your situation. Please only complete that form if you are outside of the U.S. We want to be able to follow up with each individual and provide support and guidance as they try to return within the next 28 hours.

We will also be reaching out to everyone by email later today to make sure everyone is aware.

The proclamation does not impact any other visa statuses. (Note, we have started receiving emails from people in other statuses like L-1 and TN asking about impacts. I’ll reiterate that this does not impact people in other statuses. If you refrain from sending in questions asking about that, it will help us divert our resources to help those who are impacted. Thanks!)

There is other content in the proclamation about the pause in processing H-1B petitions for individuals who are outside the U.S. At this time, we do not interpret this to immediately impact extensions of H-1B status or changes of status to H-1B as long as you are currently in the U.S. We’ll share more about that later.

I know these developments are creating anxiety and uncertainty for many of you. While we don’t have all of the answers right now, we ask that you prioritize the recommendations above.

After intense backlash and confusion surrounding the shared information, Assistant to the President, Karoline Leavitt shared some info on X to clear out the confusion. She wrote:

To be clear:

1.) This is NOT an annual fee. It’s a one-time fee that applies only to the petition.

2.) Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter.

H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country to the same extent as they normally would; whatever ability they have to do that is not impacted by yesterday’s proclamation.

3.) This applies only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders.

It will first apply in the next upcoming lottery cycle.